Death Match

A Novel

By: Lincoln Child

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lewis and Lindsay Thorpe were the perfect couple: young, attractive, and ideally matched. But the veil of perfection can mask many blemishes. When the Thorpes are found dead in their tasteful Flagstaff living room (having committed double suicide), alarms go off in the towering Manhattan offices of Eden Incorporated, the high-tech matchmaking company whose spectacular success and legendary secrecy have inspired awe around the world. The Thorpes, few people knew, were more than the quintessential happy couple - they were Eden's first perfect match.

A short time later, Christopher Lash, a gifted former FBI forensic psychologist, receives an urgent plea from Eden to perform a quick - and quiet - investigation into the deaths. Lash's psychological autopsy reveals nothing suspicious but inadvertently dredges up the memories of a searing personal tragedy he has kept at bay for years.

The situation changes suddenly when a second Eden couple is found dead - by all appearances, another double suicide. Now Eden - particularly Richard Silver, the company's brilliant and reclusive founder - has no choice but to grant Lash unprecedented access to its most guarded secrets if he is to have any chance of determining what is going wrong. The hidden world he discovers is a stunning labyrinth of artificial intelligence, creative genius, and a melding of technology that does indeed, to Lash's surprise, deliver on Eden's promise to its clients: the guarantee of a perfect lifelong mate. But Lash's involvement in the investigation becomes more personal and dangerous than he could have imagined, nearly as soon as it begins.

With tremendous imagination and skill, master thriller writer Lincoln Child renders a setting too frighteningly believable not to be real. Infused with relentless suspense and a riveting pace, Death Match is Child at his best.

©2006 Lincoln Child (P)2016 Random House Audio

two dimensional

I was actually disappointed in this book. I thought it made the characters and ideas of human emotions two dimensional. there seemed to be a lack of depth. it's well written and well performed but seemed to be missing something. however like all this authors works, I had to see it through and know how it ends.

Eh.

It was difficult to get through this one. The narrator sounded robotic. Way to many unnecessary reading off of numbers, so much to the point that I had to stop listening because it was annoying.

Perfect Match Sabotage

This was a great thriller about a company with a highly sophisticated computer that creates relationship matches. Not just a dating service, but one that purports to find the true love of your life. It actually succeeds. Many matches are wonderful, but several super couple matches are made. When the super couples are killed, the company calls in former FBI profiler and psychologist Christopher Lash to find out what is going on. Someone doesn't want him looking into the deaths and goes to great lengths to stop him.
Even though this book is over 10 years old, it is still quite relevant today. If you are a science fiction fan, you might guess the protagonist as I did, but it was still interesting to see how things turned out. It's a great page turner, that's even better on audio book. I enjoyed it, as well as the ending. I'm a fan of Child and Preston both individually and together. Narrator was fantastic!

Disappointed

The narration seemed a bit dull and robotic. These books are usually better than this.

Zero zero zero, zero zero zero, zero zero zero

Like Lincoln Child. But having someone read multidigit words makes me crazy! Rethink next time.

Not for me

One word to describe this story; drudgery.
A whole lot of nothing seems to happen. I listened to all but the last two hours and couldn’t bring myself to care what happened.

Great read

The narrator did a great job, the story line was great and I didn't expect the ending

Death Match Disappointment

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This didn't feel worth the time invested. I love this author when he is writing with writing partner, Preston.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Initially, it felt like Dr. Lash could have been an intriguing character. I was intrigued by his psychiatric perspective and thought it might go somewhere interesting.

Which character – as performed by Barrett Whitener – was your favorite?

Liza, the artificial intelligence.

Did Death Match inspire you to do anything?

I'll be more cautious in selecting authors.

Any additional comments?

Though the book started out as if it might be interesting, it felt to me like the story got 'out of control' and the author didn't know what to do with it, which led to the story
getting more outrageous and unbelievable as the book went on. I kept with it, hoping
it would take a reasonable/interesting turn. The scenes of running for safety in the secured building's vents, being shot at seemed silly. Very implausible that someone with Lash's training and professional background would have hung in there doing his investigating and assessing as long as he did. Even sillier was an ending where the company offered him an extra $l00,000 for the trouble they'd put him through and his turning it down!

Be Careful with Dating Companies

Wonder if Cold will give us another Lash book. Really liked all the characters and narrator was excellent.

really good story

I like Lincoln child's book as well as Douglas Prestons but please when there is a list of numbers you don't need the jot them all down and have someone read them all out.